I’m scything across Miami’s outer harbour at over 80 miles per hour in a 43-foot Midnight Express power boat. Pushing us to that nutty velocity are five (yes five!) 450-hp supercharged 4.6L V8 Mercury Racing outboard motors that, between them, are sucking back 300 gallons of gas per hour. It’s doing wonders for my hair and carbon footprint. And what, you may well ask, does this exercise in excess have to do with the 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge sedan?
Rolls-Royce brought a handful of journalists to Miami — that sunny city of shady people — to live the Black Badge experience. Black Badge customers are not your regular Rolls patrons. According to Torsten Müller-Ötvös, who has been at the helm of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since 2010, “Black Badge appeals to those people who are elusive and defiant, the risk takers and disrupters who break the rules and laugh in the face of convention.” Stuffy is out and badass is in. Rolls-Royce has its freak on, and since the first Black Badge Wraith was rolled out at the 2016 New York auto show, this label has done very well for the storied British marque.
Arriving at the marina with our hair frighteningly tousled and voices hoarse from yelling gleeful obscenities, we meet a fleet of 2022 Ghost Black Badges that are not all… black. For the ones that are, the hand polished finish (100 lbs of paint they tell us) looks deep enough to sink that 43-foot Midnight Express.
Rolls-Royce Black Badge vehicles are identified by their lack of chrome. Even the Parthenon Grill and Flying Lady hood ornament are rendered in black, and BBs roll on exclusive light-weight carbon-fibre wheels with forged aluminum hubs.
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
The Ghost sedan, Rolls-Royce’s best-selling model, was completely redone for 2021. A bit longer, lower and wider, it now hangs its opulence on Rolls’ proprietary Architecture of Luxury platform and gets a full complement of modern tech including rear-wheel steering and all-wheel-drive. The only carry over bits from the outgoing model are the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament and the umbrellas in the rear coach doors.
Inside, the Ghost BB’s cabin receives the Shooting Star Starlight Headliner, an illuminated fascia with 850 stars and ethereal glowing Lemniscate (the symbol for infinity), and stunning diamond-patterned trim, hand-fashioned in carbon and metallic fibre on a base of black Bolivar veneer. Splashes of bright colour contrasting black hide is a design signature of Black Badge.
Rolls-Royce wasted no time in launching the Black Badge edition of this new Ghost which, along with the visuals, ups the sedan’s performance. In Roll-Royce speak, the Black Badge is more “urgent”.
The formidable 6.75-litre turbocharged V12 generates 591 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque — up from a perfectly adequate 563 and 627 in the regular Ghost. The eight-speed auto will shift fifty percent faster when Gucci loafer hits fluffy wool, and the spectacularly smooth-riding Planar suspension has been “comprehensively re-engineered, including the fitting of more voluminous air springs to alleviate body roll under more assertive cornering”. A button marked “Low” on the pencil-thin shift wand put the BB in Sport Mode. Which Rolls does not call Sport Mode.
Time to try all this new hardware out. Oh wait, we’re in southern Florida — the most un-fun place on earth for driving. There are no hills, no curves, and the roads are clogged with an unusual mix of beaters, seniors making left turns and supercars in first gear. In light of this, Rolls-Royce commandeered a sea-side park with a narrow stretch of palm-lined tarmac for acceleration runs, along with a few parking lots where we tested the Black Badge’s agility by trying to avoid wandering peacocks. Surreal.
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
2022 Rolls Royce Ghost Black Badge Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
But by all the silver in Buckingham Palace, this Ghost Black Badge flies — so much so that the local constabulary that were hired to keep an eye on us shortened our acceleration run because we were exceeding 100 mph. With the “Low” button activated, the Black Badge’s steering gets some meaningful feel and bit of resistance, and considering this sedan’s heft, it’s remarkably poised and flat in the corners.
Yet this additional performance edge does not come at the expense of the Ghost’s uncannily smooth, silent, and if needed, shockingly swift progress. The 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge is available for order and starts at $460,400 in Canada. Which, if you’re wondering, is less than half the cost of that 2,250-horsepower 43-foot Midnight Express.
Midnight Express boat Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
Peter Bleakney aboard the Midnight Express boat Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
Peter Bleakney aboard the Midnight Express boat Photo by Lipman for Rolls Royce
Keyword: First Drive: 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge